Some numbers from a lost home stand

In On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando famously said, “ I coulda been a contender.” Well, after an 11-1 start, many Mets fans thought their beloved team could be a contender, too.

Since then, though, the Mets have looked more like pretenders. With Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Colorado completing a winless home stand, the Mets have lost 14 of their last 20 games. It is the first time they have had a winless home stand of at least six games since September of 2012. Instead of digging into ERA, RISP, and BA on this last stand, let’s do some simple counting to dissect these lost half-dozen games.

To start, the Mets were outscored 34-11 and shut out three times. They had 38 hits but 12 were in one game, the 8-7 loss to the Rockies. They scored zero runs in 48 of the 54 innings they played. They were behind or even with their opponents in 51 of 54 innings played. Simply put, they played from behind in both series and failed to hit a lick.

This was an anemic display of baseball, and with Jacob deGrom and Yoenis Cepedes both ailing, the prospects going forward look bleak. The team now goes on the road to Cincinnati and Philadelphia. In Ohio, the Mets will face a Reds team that is 8-25, a half-game ahead of Baltimore for the worst record in the league. It would seem to be a needed tonic for a team whose bats are in a deep slumber.

Mets manager Mickey Callaway said he will continue to shuffle his lineup until he finds one that produces. Let’s hope he succeeds—because if not, instead of being a contender, the Mets will be lucky to be a .500 team.